Shelby schools board preps for tough budget season

More than a month before the Shelby County Schools board starts the hard work of setting a budget for the de-merged, no-longer-unified system, it nonetheless will confront crucial budget-related issues at Tuesday night's regular monthly work session.

The eAgenda report for Tuesday's meeting includes copies of audits and financial reports from the 2013 fiscal year, the final year the structure for Shelby County public schools involved two districts — Memphis City Schools and formerly all-suburban Shelby County Schools.

The audits, conducted by Watkins Uiberall PLLC, looked at internal school funds for all the schools in each district, and each ended with a conclusion that, "during our audit, we did not identify any deficiencies in internal control that we consider to be material weaknesses."

However, the audits did identify instances at numerous schools, in Memphis and the suburbs, of "deficiencies" in following proper procedures for some school fund accounting. Those ran the gamut from not filling out receipt forms properly to "expenses improperly coded to general fund" to more serious "equipment items unaccounted for."

In Memphis, the deficiencies related to equipment occurred at 88 schools. Board member Chris Caldwell of Midtown, who has been emphasizing the need for the district to win confidence of the community and the county commission, called for greater vigilance.

"I will want to know how much money was involved each time so we can get a handle on the magnitude of the situation," Caldwell said. "Just as an organization, though, I see a lot of room for improvement."

He added: "It is a little disconcerting when you see that a school has been on that list twice and their answer (to the auditor) is, ‘We're going to train the staff on the policies.'"

Although the combined budget for the merged district for this 2013-14 school year is $75 million less than MCS and SCS combined in 2012-13, board members know well the battles they will face if they, as expected, ask the county commission for an increase in local education funding for next school year.

SCS Supt. Dorsey Hopson has said the district will begin the budget process looking at a $48 million deficit, because of revenue declines related to loss of students to newly forming suburban municipal school districts and to public charter schools. SCS also is dealing with the loss of local funding to schools from the City of Memphis, now free of its court-obligated nearly $68 million annual payments.

Another item on the agenda involves a new policy pushed by Caldwell to make certain funding requests explicitly align with the district's student achievement goals. Among the things Caldwell wants included are "measurable outcomes expected" and "explanation of expected benefits."

"I firmly believe that the business community, the philanthropic community, the county and the state would have much more confidence in increasing funding if they know money is being well spent and the programs being implemented are driving student achievement," Caldwell said.

Another item on the agenda comes from former SCS board chairman David Pickler "in support of adequate state funding for public education." Tennessee ranks 49th in the nation in per-pupil funding for education, his resolution reads, and points out the state has "never fully funded" the Basic Education Program law that passed in 2007.

Pickler asks the board to urge the state legislature and Gov. Bill Haslam to "adequately fund public education in a way that is commensurate with the more rigorous standards and measures that have been implemented by local education agencies."

SCS board chairman Kevin Woods said he anticipates another bruising budget season where the focus must be on "a budget that keeps cuts away from the classroom."

"When I asked Chris Caldwell to lead the budget and finance committee, I said let's create policies that are looking at the return on investment on every dollar we are spending," Woods said. "Let's vet everything so when we ask funding bodies to approve the budget, they know the board is doing the due diligence."

Shelby Schools Work session

The regular monthly work session of the Shelby County Schools board is Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at the Frances E. Coe Auditorium, 160 S. Hollywood.

The meeting is carried live on radio (WQOX-FM 88.5), TV (Channel 19 on Comcast) and the Internet (scsk12.org/uf/tcc).

On Twitter, follow live coverage of the meeting from education reporters Zack McMillin (@zackmcm) and Jane Roberts (@JaneRoberts8).